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Tybee's turtles take to the sea

A hatchling emerges from its nest on Tybee Island Friday. Photo courtesy of Amy Capello.

It’s a boy! And a girl, and a boy, and a boy. In fact, it’s more than 100 baby turtles, sex unknown. All adorable.

They’ve had an ocean-front home for the last two months as part of a record-breaking crop of turtle nests on Tybee Island. The total number of nests is 17 and counting.

These first hatchlings of the season made their appearance Monday, with just a few emerging ahead of their siblings from a nest near North Beach.

“We only had six come out,” said Cheryl Tilton, who volunteers with the Tybee Sea Turtle Project.

“We had little dribbles and drabs; the actual boil was Tuesday,” she said referring to the emergence of most of the baby turtles at once.

On Thursday morning a nest near 11th Street followed suit.

Volunteers marked and protected each nest as they were discovered in May. For the last week or so baby sitters have stayed with the nests overnight to watch for half-dollar sized hatchlings. The sea turtle volunteers invited the public to watch them excavate the North Beach nest Friday evening to look for stragglers that hadn’t yet emerged and document how many eggs hatched. It’s a great chance to educate, Tilton said.

Loggerhead sea turtles are a threatened species, making their comeback season on Tybee that much sweeter.